Record cold in Terre Adélie (Antarctica)

[Mark]

07/09/2014
 
The austral winter is installed in Terre Adélie. June there was even unusually cold. At the station Météo-France base Dumont d'Urville, there was an average temperature of -22.4 ° C, 6.6 ° C lower than normal. *
June 2014 and is the most June cold since measurements began in 1956, and the second coldest month all months combined (after September 1958 with -23.5 ° C). The daily minimum temperature record for June was also beaten with -34.9 ° C recorded 3 (previous record: -33.4 ° C).

Other elements make an unusual month in June 2014 in Terre Adélie. Accustomed to strong winds even if the station is not located in a corridor of katabatic winds (see below), the wind there was particularly low: the average is less than 36% of normal (22.2 km / h against 35.3 km / h). June 2014 and is the second least windy month since the beginning of the measurements (21 km / h in 1978). Gusts have exceeded 120 km / h on only one occasion (127 km / h 17) against 6 usually. The 100 km / h was reached on 5 occasions, against just over 11 times usually.

 Finally there was a surplus of sunshine 60% (11.8 hours on average against 7.4 **).

 These three factors combined (cold, no wind, excess exposure) may indicate that disturbances were fewer than usual and / or evolved at lower latitudes than usual.

 In apparent contradiction to these data, the snowfall has been reported about them 7 times, a figure close to the average (8.5).

* Normal over the period 1981-2010
** normal over the period 1991-2010
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